I'm finishing up something that the site should have had long ago, the Greatest 1950s Rock & Roll Albums:

Here's the Top 5:

The list is now up:

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_albums50s.html

Criteria - Albums as we know them now were a new concept in the 1950s. Before then an album was a set of 3 or 4 78s in a booklet form. The first rock albums started to appear around 1955. Most early rock albums were merely collections of songs that had previously been released on singles. We have tried not to include any items on this list that did not contain at least some material that had not already been released before, but there are a couple of essential 1950s albums here that only included songs that were also available on singles. These albums were chosen and ranked based on their initial and lasting popularity, their influence and impact on musical history, and on their legitimacy as albums. This refers to how much of the music on the album was recorded specifically for the album, as opposed to being older tracks from previously released singles.


1 ¦ Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley
2 ¦ The Chirping Crickets - Crickets
3 ¦ Here's Little Richard - Little Richard
4 ¦ Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
5 ¦ The Paragons Meet The Jesters - Paragons & Jesters
6 ¦ Buddy Holly - Buddy Holly
7 ¦ Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n Roll Trio - Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n Roll Trio
8 ¦ Little Richard - Little Richard
9 ¦ Chuck Berry Is On Top - Chuck Berry
10 ¦ Elvis - Elvis Presley
11 ¦ After School Session - Chuck Berry
12 ¦ Flamingo Serenade - Flamingos
13 ¦ Bluejean Bop - Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps
14 ¦ Loving You - Elvis Presley
15 ¦ Dance Album - Carl Perkins
16 ¦ The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon - Teenagers
17 ¦ Rock And Rollin' With Fats - Fats Domino
18 ¦ Go Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
19 ¦ Jerry Lee Lewis - Jerry Lee Lewis
20 ¦ King Creole - Elvis Presley
21 ¦ The Everly Bothers (They're Off And Rolling) - Everly Brothers
22 ¦ This Is Fats Domino! - Fats Domino
23 ¦ One Dozen Berrys - Chuck Berry
24 ¦ Ricky - Ricky Nelson
25 ¦ Ricky Sings Again - Ricky Nelson
26 ¦ Have Twangy Guitar, Will Travel - Duane Eddy
27 ¦ Goodnite, It's Time To Go - Spaniels
28 ¦ Rock 'n' Roll Stage Show - Bill Haley and His Comets
29 ¦ Oh! Suzy-Q - Dale Hawkins
30 ¦ This Is Fats! - Fats Domino
31 ¦ King Of The Stroll - Chuck Willis
32 ¦ Here's Larry Williams - Larry Williams
33 ¦ The Platters - Platters
34 ¦ We Are The Chantels - Chantels
35 ¦ Look! It's The Moonglows - Moonglows
36 ¦ Jack Scott - Jack Scott
37 ¦ Ritchie Valens - Ritchie Valens
38 ¦ We Are The Imperials - Little Anthony and the Imperials
39 ¦ The Crazy Cadillacs - Cadillacs
40 ¦ The Fabulous "Mr. D" - Fats Domino
41 ¦ Ronnie Hawkins - Ronnie Hawkins
42 ¦ Here Stands Fats Domino - Fats Domino
43 ¦ The Genius Of Ray Charles - Ray Charles
44 ¦ Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
45 ¦ Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps - Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps
46 ¦ I'm Jimmy Reed - Jimmy Reed
47 ¦ Wanda Jackson - Wanda Jackson
48 ¦ Have Guitar Will Travel - Bo Diddley
49 ¦ Johnny Cash With His Hot And Blue Guitar - Johnny Cash
50 ¦ Elvis' Christmas Album - Elvis Presley
51 ¦ The 5 Satins Sing - Five Satins
52 ¦ Please, Please, Please - James Brown
53 ¦ Presenting Dion and the Belmonts - Dion and the Belmonts
54 ¦ Ricky Nelson - Ricky Nelson
55 ¦ That's All - Bobby Darin
56 ¦ The Exciting Lloyd Price - Lloyd Price
57 ¦ Rock And Roll - Buddy Johnson
58 ¦ Gene Vincent Rocks! And The Blue Caps Roll- Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps
59 ¦ Esquerita! - Esquerita
60 ¦ Blues, Candy, And Big Maybelle - Big Maybelle
61 ¦ The Fabulous Little Richard - Little Richard
62 ¦ I'm John Lee Hooker - John Lee Hooker
63 ¦ Rock'n Roll'n Robbins - Marty Robbins
64 ¦ The Boss Of The Blues - Joe Turner
65 ¦ Rockin' With Reed - Jimmy Reed
66 ¦ Rock And Roll - Red Prysock
67 ¦ On A Sea Cruise - Frankie Ford
68 ¦ The Swinging, Singing Record Session - Del-Vikings
69 ¦ The Cool, Cool Penguins - Penguins
70 ¦ America's Famous Song Stylists - Diamonds
71 ¦ Fever - Little Willie John
72 ¦ Rockin' The Joint - Bill Haley and His Comets
73 ¦ LaVern Baker Sings Bessie Smith - LaVern Baker
74 ¦ Big Jay In 3-D - Big Jay McNeely
75 ¦ Conway Twitty Sings - Conway Twitty
76 ¦ Bobby Darin - Bobby Darin
77 ¦ Lonely Teardrops - Jackie Wilson
78 ¦ Yours Forever - Billy Ward and the Dominoes
79 ¦ Love Ballads - Clyde McPhatter
80 ¦ Whole Lotta Shakin' - Carl Perkins
81 ¦ Joe Houston Blows All Nite Long - Joe Houston
82 ¦ Let's Play Fats Domino - Fats Domino
83 ¦ Singin' To My Baby - Eddie Cochran
84 ¦ Try Me - James Brown
85 ¦ That'll Be The Day - Buddy Holly
86 ¦ Cliff - Cliff Richard
87 ¦ The Blues - B.B. King
88 ¦ Ray Charles At Newport - Ray Charles
89 ¦ Come Go With The Del-Vikings - Del-Vikings
90 ¦ Rock And Roll Dance Party - Alan Freed
91 ¦ Sam Cooke - Sam Cooke
92 ¦ Shout! - Isley Brothers
93 ¦ Walkin' With Mr. Lee - Lee Allen
94 ¦ Buddy Knox - Buddy Knox
95 ¦ Jumpin' With The Jacks - Jacks
96 ¦ New Sounds - Mickey and Sylvia
97 ¦ On Stage - Five Keys
98 ¦ Frankie Lymon at the London Paladium - Frankie Lymon
99 ¦ In Concert - Piano Red
100 ¦ Rockin' Robin - Bobby Day

I'm wondering whether it really makes sense to exclude single compilations for this list. As you said a lot of the earliest rock albums were compiled of material that had already been released, and yet a lot of them are still beloved classics. Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" comes to mind, or The "5" Royales' "Dedicated to You", one of the very few doo wop albums with some kind of a cult status outside hardcore doo wop fans.

The problem is that there are dozens of great compilation albums from the 50s, many of which would have to be way up high on the list. All of the Atlantic albums to start, Clovers, Joe Turner, Drifters, Ray Charles, Coasters, Ruth Brown, etc... all had albums that were just collections of all of their past great records.....not to mention "The Buddy Holly Story," and "Elvis Golden Hits" and all of the King-Federal albums (Dominoes, Midnighters, Little Esther, Wynonie harris, etc...) that were just collections of great singles from years prior.

Haley's "Rock Around The Clock" is a reissue (with 4 extra songs) of his ten inch "Shake, Rattle and Roll" album from a year earlier. Every song on the "RATC" album had been released on a single for at least 6 months already when the album was released, and most had been out for over a year. It's really just a "Best Of" album that was extended from 8 songs to 12 songs and retitled "Rock Around The Clock" to try and cash in on that song's overwhelming popularity at that time.

In order to mainstain consistency with the other album lists on the site we need to stay away from albums that are completely just collections of material that was released in the past on singles.

OK, you definitely have a point, though I'm not a big fan of excluding all compilation albums.

Believe me, it hurts not to include anything from Joe Turner, the Clovers, the Midnighters, Five Royales, etc....but those things are just "Greatest Hits" and "Berst Of" albums before those titles were being used much yet.

The 12 inch "Rock Around The Clock" albums just contains both sides of his first 6 Decca singles. It's even listed with a (G) in Whitburn's Billboard album chart book, for Greatest Hits album. All they did was compile all 12 tracks that the label had released already and put them on an LP. The 10" Shake, Rattle And Roll album contains both sides of the first 4 singles.


1954/May 15
Bb pop rev. Decca (N.Y.) 9-29124 ( We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock /
Thirteen Women (And Only One Man In Town)

1954/July 10
Bb pop rev. Decca (N.Y.) 9-29204 Shake, Rattle And Roll / A.B.C. Boogie

1954/Oct. 30
Bb pop rev. Decca (N.Y.) 9-29317 Happy Baby / Dim, Dim The Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)

1955/Feb. 12
Bb pop rev. Decca (N.Y.) 9-29418 Birth Of The Boogie / Mambo Rock

1955/June 25
Bb pop rev. Decca (N.Y.) 9-29552 Razzle-Dazzle / Two Hound Dogs

1955/Nov. 12
Bb pop rev. Decca (N.Y.) 9-29713 Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie / Burn That Candle

The first Bo Diddley album is similar, but at least it came out the same time as the last single that is on it. The Paragons/Jesters is similar too, but most all of those singles were non-hits that only became relevant after the album was released. Plus it was a real landmark concept album with a legendary cover.

Other than that I pretty much stayed away from any albums that were no more than a collection of past singles.

you cant find a place for johnny o'keefe? he released 50 singles,100 albums is an australian icon, im sure he must have had some success in the US too, which seems to be the criteria for just about any list.

He did have a few singles in the US, but he never had any success here.

His first album is from 1960 though, so he can't be on this list.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/johnny_okeefe

ok, im sure he released some very successful singles in the late 50's perhaps thery were only in australia.

Yes, I know he was huge there. But he had no hits in the UK either. Given that the population of Australia in the 50s was less then ten million, an artist would have to be big somewhere else in addition to Australia in order to have any world significance.

Australia barely has 20 million people now.

I have to give you credit Bruce, this is an awesome list.
But didnt Link Wray release Rumble in 1958? That was a landmark for rock guitar.

"Rumble" was a huge hit single, but there was no album. Wray's first album came in 1960, and he had already changed labels.

The single is on the "Greatest 50s Songs" list:

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_songs50s.html

and is top ten on the 1958 song list:

http://digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/bg_hi ... ts_58.html

Awesome.
Out of curiosity, are you a fan of Link?

The guy blows me away, personally.

If you like Link Wray...perhaps you'd agree that Duane Eddy was just as, if not more influential in 50's early Rock&Roll guitar???

Of course he was.
Link Wray was laying the blueprint more for metal guitar than anything else.